Premillennialism Part 1

Introduction

Premillennialism. You might say, what is that? But you’ve probably heard of it, whether you know of the word, premillennialism or not. The rapture. Left behind. We’ve heard of those things. So you’re familiar with at least parts of this doctrine of premillennialism, whether you really knew it or not. It’s exciting. Because it’s all about future stuff. It’s all about, you know, the rapture. It’s all about the great tribulation. It’s all about the Antichrist as this world dictator. It’s about the Battle of Armageddon, you know, World War III and all this end time stuff, and Christ establishing a kingdom for a thousand years on earth and reigning from the throne of David. Man, that stuff just gets people enthralled. They get really excited when they hear about all this future stuff.

But the question is, is it true? And that’s what we want to examine in today’s lesson. And I actually have three lessons planned on this, maybe four. But at least three that we’re going to do on premillennialism. Is it true? Now, another question you might have right at this point might be, well, does it really matter? I mean, I’ve had people tell me, you know, it doesn’t really matter because whatever’s going to happen is what’s going to happen. So if you believe it wrong, it’s still going to happen the way it’s going to happen. So ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not one of those important matters of doctrine. In Revelation 22, 18 and 19, it says, and I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone hears the words of the book of this prophecy and takes away from them, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. Now that is found in Revelation, but it applies to throughout the whole Bible. We see that concept coming up over and over. We don’t add, we don’t take away.

So that makes it even more potent. That we need to make sure that if the doctrine of premillennialism adds to the word of God or takes away from it, that we do not accept it. I want to preach this in such a way that you could share this lesson with your friends. Even your friends who are premillennial.

So that’s what we’re going to do. Now, premillennialism is pretty famous. And right now, the thing that really made me want to preach the series is there’s this new slick movie out starring Nicolas Cage. I mean, that’s a lot better than the corny acting of Kurt Cameron, right? And there’s that three three movie series, I believe it was three movies. And uh, boy, that was that was some rough, you know, uh rough stuff to watch is from an entertainment standpoint. But there’s this new slick one out with a bigger star and everything. And there’s two more plant. Left behind. And this is all about the doctrine of premillennialism. And these movies are based on the books. There’s a 12 series of books on premillennialism called Left Behind.

Titled, I mean, uh, authored by Tim LaHaye and Terry and Jerry Jenkins. And originally these books were only going to be, I think, three, and they just ended up being so popular, it was just a runaway hit that they made 12 books in all. And so it’s incredibly popular. A lot of people who are believers in Jesus, they own these books and they believe in this stuff. Maybe some of us own some of these books. Well, this is not a new phenomenon. You back up, let’s back up a little bit in time to 1970, and you have the book by Hal Lindsey, the late great planet Earth. And it really was a bestseller. And it’s all about premillennialism, the end times. We could back up to 1909 when the Schofield Study Bible came out.

One of these Bibles with the commentary at the bottom and everything. And heavily premillennial. And these are some of the things that have promulgated this doctrine of premillennialism into the mainstream, such that if you call yourself a believer and you don’t believe in premillennialism, you’re almost viewed as a heretic in many circles. Dallas Theological Seminary. This is unwavering. You have to agree to premillennialism as part of their system. It is absolutely required. And it is in many circles and in many churches. But is it true?

Now you may say, all right, but I still don’t really even know what it is. So before we start examining, is it true? Let’s let’s lay it out a little bit more in detail. And beginning with the rapture. Okay. So the idea is that one day Christ is going to return in the air. According to Billy Graham, this will be a secret coming. So, not the bona fide second coming. This is the first second coming. This is where he remains in the air, according to the doctrine. And there is the rapture that is a resurrection. So all the dead who are saved will be raptured up to meet Christ in the air, and those who are alive will be raptured up to meet Christ in the air.

And they very much use 1 Thessalonians 4 for this. But they have added to this the idea that those who are on earth are left behind. They’re not also going to be resurrected. No, there’s going to be more than one resurrection. So you have this rapture, and those who are raptured are with Christ. And there is the marriage feast. And this is going to happen for seven years. They’re going to be with Christ, but they’re going to come back to earth. So while they’re in heaven, you have those who are left behind that were the lost, who were on earth, and they have no idea what happened except for people just started disappearing. Where are my loved ones? Where are my children? Where are some of the people I go to church with?

Just gone. All that’s left is clothes. The rapture. And so those who are left behind are going to have seven years of great tribulation on earth, according to the doctrine. Okay? And there’s going to be the rise of a dictator. And this is the Antichrist. And he comes on the scene. And the Jews, at first, they like him. And in fact, there’s, according to the most popular form of this doctrine, and there are many forms of it, there will be a regathering of the Jews to Palestine and a mass conversion of Jews to Christianity. And they’re going to like the Antichrist at first, but at the three and a half year mark, they’re going to begin to see through him and they’re going to turn against him.

And there’s going to be this rebellion and this conflict that results in this great battle. And this battle is typically called the Battle of Armageddon. The battle of Armageddon. And so there’s the antichrist fighting the Christians. But then Christ comes. This is at the seven-year mark. And he comes with his saints and he sets foot on the Mount of Olives. You know, Zechariah 14. And the doctrine says that he comes and he defeats the Antichrist and his army and establishes a kingdom. A literal kingdom, according to premillennialism. I mean, this is an earthly kingdom. It is a kingdom where Christ reigned from the throne of David. The temple is rebuilt. Temple worship is reestablished. The Old Testament worship, reinstituted. Jews are going to be exalted above the Gentiles.

It will be a golden age. Animal and man will dwell in peace and all of these things for this literal period of 1,000 years. I’m just telling you what the doctrine says. Okay.

So Satan is going to be bound during this thousand years, so that he cannot deceive the nations any longer. And then he is going to be loosed after the thousand years are over for a short time, for a little time, and he is going to gather up all the nations and come to battle, a physical battle against the believers. And uh, but really before the battle even really gets going, God sends fire down from heaven and defeats Satan and his followers. We have the resurrection of the wicked then, according to this doctrine. That uh, you know, those who were wicked are now gonna be resurrected to a resurrection of judgment. So you see, there’s more than one resurrection there, separated by this thousand years, or a thousand and seven, include the great tribulation.

Satan is going to be thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, and you’re gonna have the final judgment and so on. That’s the basic idea. That’s exciting stuff. I mean, it’s all yet to come according to the doctrine of premillennialism. Now, in today’s lesson, I’m not gonna really get into the details of the different things we listed here, but I do want to do that throughout our series. We are going to do that throughout this. We’re gonna break down every element of this and look at scripture. But I do want to just look at a couple of things that raise some red flags, just some questions. Well, doesn’t the Bible teach that there’s only one resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked? And this has more than one.

And some premillennialists have several, three or four. But this one has two. Christ coming to earth. You have two returns of Christ. One in the air and one when he sets foot on the earth, according to premillennialism. Is that what you find in Scripture? Do we not just find one return of Jesus Christ? Then you have the biggest problem is the millennial reign. Didn’t Christ already establish a kingdom? Didn’t He say His kingdom is not of this world? Isn’t He reigning right now on the throne of David in heaven, sitting at the right hand of God? So why, if there’s a kingdom now, why is he going to come and establish a kingdom later, a physical kingdom, and then go back into the law of Moses?

It’s going backwards. So those are some definite red flags. And we’re going to get into those details as we go along these lessons. But what I want to do in today’s lesson is I want to take the primary text, the key proof text for the premillennialist, which is in Revelation chapter 20 and verses 1 through 6. If it were not for this passage, there would be no premillennialism. This is the only place where you read about the thousand-year reign of the saints with Christ and the thousand years. This is the only place you read of that. Well, you also have verse 7 that mentions the thousand years when they are completed. So these verses. Now, on these verses, the doctrine of premillennialism stands or falls. So that’s why I want to tackle this first.

Plus, it’s fun. Alright? So, Revelation chapter 20. Now, before we read it, I want to set the scene just a little bit. What is Revelation all about? I talked about this a little bit last time I talked about heaven. It’s all about a battle. Christ and Satan get into a battle, and Christ wins. That’s it in a nutshell, okay? So you have this battle taking place, and in chapters 1 and through 11, you see the spiritual battle as it concerns people on earth. But starting in chapter 12, you see this spiritual battle in the heavenly places in the spiritual realm. And revelation is full of symbols. It’s full of all of this symbolic language. John is seeing these things by way of vision. So what we see in chapter 12 is we see this great red dragon.

And he’s got seven heads and ten horns, and he’s ferocious, and he sweeps a third of the stars with his tail. I mean, he is just scary. And he is waiting for this woman to give birth to this child, this baby boy. And this is Jesus, who he’s trying to destroy. And the symbolism is Satan tried to destroy Christ and the work of Christ when Christ was here, and this baby was caught up to the throne, and that’s Jesus doing his work and accomplishing his work, and guess what? Satan failed. And so Satan then turns his attention to the mother of the baby, which is a symbol. If I understand it, it represents the people from which Jesus came. And he Satan is trying to destroy the woman, and he fails.

And he then decides to divert his attention to her children, which, if I understand it correctly, is the church. And he’s going to use a couple of tools at his disposal. The first thing he’s going to use is he’s going to use the sea beast. And in chapter 13, it’s this exciting thing. You see this sea beast. And he comes up out of the sea. That’s why he called a sea beast, okay? And he comes up out of the sea. And he looks a lot like the dragon looked. He really favors the dragon a lot, and he’s going to have the authority really of the dragon to back him. Uh that is Satan. And so this beast comes up out of the earth, and it’s scary looking too.

And guess what the beast is? It is embodied in Rome. It is a symbol of a world empire, and at that time, Rome was the world empire. I mean, has there ever been a world empire like Rome? And Satan’s going to use this world empire to try to defeat Christianity. And not only that, but there’s another beast that comes up out of the land. And this one looks gentle, like a lamb. But is deceiving. And that’s its primary characteristic. This thing is deceiving. It is also called the false prophet. And so this, I believe, represents the Caesar worship, the emperor worship that was going on at the time of the writing of Revelation. And my understanding is around the end of the first century with the Emperor Domitian.

And there’s this emperor worship going on. So here is Satan using the world empire and using emperor worship to deceive the nations. Okay? To deceive the world. That’s that’s what Satan was doing, and he was doing a pretty decent job of it. Oh, and if you’re a Christian in the time of the first century, this stuff is making sense to you. You’re going, Yeah, that’s Rome. That’s emperor worship. This stuff is going on right now. Well, we fast forward along the way, and we get to the end of chapter 19, and we have the defeat of the beast and the false prophet or the land beast. And so both of them are thrown in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. And then guess who’s going to fall next?

The one who backed them, which is Satan, the dragon. Alright. So that’s where we start. And really, the point is going to be through here as we go down, we’re going to read through verse 10, is the destruction of Satan. So let’s read. Now listen, as we read, don’t just read this. I want you to see this. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed.

After these things he must be released for a short time.

Was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand, and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power. But they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war.

The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.

Left behind.

I mean, the Bible says what it means, it means what it says.

1. Missing Tenets

Can we take it at its face value? Okay, so that’s what we’re going to try to seek to answer. But I want to make that up front. It’s not that a person who believes in this stuff is stupid or unintelligent. Can you see where somebody could come to the wrong conclusions here? If they’re not careful enough? Well, sure, we can see that. So if you have that view, we’re not trying to tell you that you’re stupid. We’re not trying to tell you there’s something wrong with you. We just want to help you. Now, as I said, there would be no premillennialism without this passage. It rises and falls on this passage. Now, the first thing I want to look at is simply the fact that there are missing tenets.

Every major tenet of premillennialism is absent from this text, which is the main text. Okay? There is no second coming of Christ. Well, that’s in chapter 19. I don’t believe that’s talking about the second coming of Christ either. There is no bodily resurrection. We have a resurrection of souls. There is no reign of Christ on earth. It’s a heavenly reign. There is no throne of David. There is no Jerusalem or Palestine mentioned. There is no conversion of the Jews mentioned. And there is no church on earth mentioned. If you take a puzzle and you take these two pieces and go, I just can’t find any other piece, these two have got to fit together. I mean, they kind of look like they should fit together. So is it going to work?

And if those two end up fitting, then the ones around it aren’t going to fit. And when you get done, you’re going to have a jumbled mess. You can’t force two pieces of the puzzle together, they don’t belong together. And so what we’ve got to make sure we do is never read something into a passage that doesn’t fit that context. Two things to remember in biblical interpretation, and that is context and harmony. Context, what is what is, you know, around this passage and what is the theme of the book and all of that. And harmony is what do other passages say. But if they don’t really line up, then we can’t play as some say biblical hopscotch to make them line up. So a lot of missing tenets.

2. Is This Passage Literal or Symbolic?

Well, is this passage literal? Or is it symbolic? Now, the premillennialists would say, well, it’s literal. In fact, some really take pride in this that, hey, I take the Bible at face value. I take it literally. And all you people who won’t take it literally like me, you’re just a bunch of liberals. I’m serious, that’s how some people think. So they think that we’re doing something wrong if we don’t believe in premillennialism. But even the premillennialists cannot be consistent taking everything literally. How can you be consistent taking everything literally? Jesus said, I am the door of the sheep. Literal. He’s a square piece of wood that hangs on hinges. Well, no, of course, nobody takes that literally. I am the bread of life. Well, he is a walking loaf of bread.

Can you believe Jesus was a walking loaf of bread? See, I’m not poking fun. I’m just saying nobody believes that. Nobody believes that. We take symbols symbolically. But we take the thing that the symbol represents literally. My wife is a ray of sunshine. I love getting brownie points up here. It’s the easiest way to get brownie points. Ray of sun. Well, your wife is literally particles of light beaming from the sun, or however that works. No. She’s joyful. She’s happy. She lights up a room when she enters it. My little girl is a tornado. She’s a literal cycle of wind spinning around. No, but wherever she goes, there’s evidence. There’s a mess. So what is literal? The symbol or the thing it represents? That’s literal. So if somebody says, Well, you, you people, you just don’t take the Bible literally.

Well, we cannot take symbols literally. You can’t. But you take the thing that the symbol represents literally. In that sense, do we take the Bible literally? When it says the dragon, does anybody take that literally? Even the premillennialist. It’s a literal dragon. No. The premillennialist says, well, that’s a symbol for Satan. In fact, the text tells you. It is talking about Satan, the devil, the serpent of old. It’s a symbol. So we take what it represents literally. That’s what we have to do in symbolic literature. If you read the first couple of verses of the book of Revelation, it gives you a clue of how to interpret this book. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants, the things which must soon take place, and he sent and communicated it by his angel to his bondservant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

So he’s seeing these things. And it says in verse 1 that he communicated it. Does anybody have a different word there in your version than communicated? Does anybody have signified? Alright. This is yes? Raise your hand if you have signified. I’m just curious. Okay, so several of us have signified. Well, the idea behind signified is signs. In fact, one version says symbolized. And so that’s the idea here. These things were symbolized to John. So it’s symbolic literature. And we need to interpret it that way. Well, what about the thousand years? Read all about that thousand years that Satan will be bound, thousand years that the saints will reign with Christ. Is that a literal period of time? Well, if the whole book is filled with symbols, then just maybe the thousand years is a symbol for something.

In fact, when you really begin looking at the numbers in Revelation, they’re all symbolic. Three, the number for divinity. Seven, a number of perfection. Twelve, a number for God’s people. Six, six, six.

That’s symbolic too. It’s not a big hairy deal. And we’ll talk about that one in a later later lesson. A thousand. Well, what is a thousand? Well no, ten is a number of completion. Ten times ten times ten is a thousand. So this is not simply complete, but it’s really complete. It’s just complete fullness. And it’s a symbol for that. And you find this idea of a thousand years being used in the Bible to refer to an undetermined but long amount of time, you know, 2 Peter 3:8. With the Lord, a day is as is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. Try to put that into a mathematical formula. It’s almost the same two opposite things. It means he doesn’t view time like we do.

3. When Is the Thousand Year Reign of Christ?

So we don’t have a problem there. Taking that, you know, in a way that’s not literal. So we shouldn’t have a problem here either in Revelation, especially since it’s heavily symbolic all throughout. Alright. So when is the thousand year reign of Christ? Is it something that’s still going to happen in the future? That’s what the premillennialist says. It hasn’t happened yet. Christ is going to establish his thousand year reign. Well, consider this. Christ is reigning in heaven now. God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one that is to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body.

Is Christ reigning on his throne now? He is. He’s reigning on his throne now in heaven. And this is the throne of David, Acts chapter 2. This is in connection with his resurrection. So if he’s reigning in heaven now, then we’re not looking for him to reign later. We’re looking for him to continue reigning.

And saints are reigning with Christ in heaven now. This verse is a good one in Revelation 3 and verse 21 to the church at Laodicea. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. And thirdly, here, when Christ comes again, that’s not going to be the beginning of a kingdom. It’s not going to be the beginning of a reign of Christ. I want you to look in 1 Corinthians 15, please. 1 Corinthians 15. And I’ve learned instead of saying flip there, I was telling my class earlier, you know, click there if you’ve got the electronic version of your Bible. Whatever it takes to get there, flipping or clicking.

Alright. In 1 Corinthians 15, look at verse 23. But each in his own order, Christ, the first fruits, talking about the resurrection. After that, those who are Christ at his coming. So we read about the coming of Christ. Verse 24, then comes the end. When he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. When he comes, it will not be to establish a kingdom, it will be to hand over the kingdom. Somebody say amen. So it’s occurring now. That’s when the thousand year reign of Christ is occurring. It’s a symbolic, full period of time, until that time when Satan is destroyed, and the judgment comes.

4. The Binding of Satan

The thousand years is going to last up until that time. The fullness of time. Like Galatians 4 4. You know, Jesus came in the fullness of time. Well, now there’s a fullness of time to finish out the reign of Christ until we have the defeat of Satan and the judgment of the world. That’s what this period symbolically represents. It is going on now. Now I want to get a little bit into the text a little bit more in detail. We’re going to read verses 1 through 3 again. Again, see it in your mind. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years.

And he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed. After these things he must be released for a short time. So we have the binding of Satan here.

And they were handing out material, and I said, you know, I don’t believe, you know, all this stuff in Revelation is all talking about, you know, the end. I believe it, you know, it was primarily about stuff regarding the first century saints. And uh so they set up a time and brought one of their leaders with them to argue with me. And so we got to kind of argue. And uh I said, he was he was reading from Revelation 20, and I said, I don’t believe that that thousand years is something that is yet to happen. And he said, Well, then how do you understand this binding of Satan? If Satan is bound, so that he cannot deceive the nations any longer. How can you say that going on right now?

Because when you look out in the world, don’t you see deceit? Don’t you see Satan deceiving the world and the nations? Don’t you see all manner of sin out there? Satan’s active, so you can’t say he’s bound. That’s kind of what he said to me. And I’m kind of embarrassed to say it kind of stumped me. I didn’t know exactly how to answer that. This is difficult scripture. Some say this is the most difficult part of Revelation. And Revelation is the most difficult book in the New Testament. So this is very difficult stuff we’re looking at this morning. Alright? So I didn’t know exactly. So what would you say? Kind of stumped on that, huh? Well, I would say what the scripture says. It says that he was bound so that he would not deceive the nations any longer.

Until the thousand years were completed. It does not say that he was bound so that he could not tempt anyone ever. It does not say that he was bound so that no sin would be happening on earth. That’s not what it says. It says that he was bound for a very specific reason so that he would not deceive the nations any longer. Satan being bound and thrown into this abyss is in the revelation is not literal. It’s a symbol for a limiting of Satan. Reigning him back, sort of in his power and ability.

That’s a really good way to tear up your yard.

You see, deceiving the nations is a very particular, specific thing. And if you go back and read Revelation 13, it really comes to light. Satan was using Rome, and he was using the false prophet to deceive the nations with the world power to deceive the world. And if you connect it with that meaning, Satan is not allowed to use a world power to deceive the world. He’s been restrained from that. Let me ask you a question. And Mr. Hawkwriter asked us this question, me and Greg the other day. He loves to ask these questions.

I don’t mean a world power. I mean the world empire. Never. There have been efforts, but there hasn’t been one. And if I understand scripture correctly, it’s because Satan is not allowed to have that same power that he had at that time of the writing of Revelation. You know, Satan is still active today. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. Be sober, be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, is walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But you could kind of look at it like this. Mr. Harkriter has this in his commentary. It’d be kind of like a lion in his cage. And that thing’s dangerous. And but he can’t get to everybody. But if you get in his cage, then you’re basically a happy meal, right?

Now, you know, people don’t have problems with the idea of Satan being bound at other times we read in the Bible. I won’t go into this in detail, but the first binding of Satan we read about is in Matthew chapter 12, when Jesus casting out demons made the explanation that basically what I have done is I have bound the strong man and plundered his house. So Satan was bound to a degree. Does that mean he was bound in every degree? Just in the sense that Christ and his followers could pass or cast out demons. We also read of another binding of Satan in Hebrews 2 and verse 14. Therefore, since they partook of flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that he through death might render powerless him who had the power over death, that is the devil.

5. Saints Reigning With Christ; the First Resurrection

So that is Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, he bound Satan in a way. He rendered him powerless in every single way. Well, no, Satan still has power, but in the sense of what Jesus did on the cross, and in Satan controlling people’s, you know, death and having control over death, that has been that has been reigned back. It’s been destroyed. And so we can understand this being a partial limiting and not have a problem with that if we understand Scripture. Now, moving on to 4 through 6. Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand.

And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. Don’t get lost in the details. Let’s kind of look at the big picture. So we have here the reigning of saints with Christ. Notice here, this is a heavenly reign. This is not an earthly reign. Notice that John does not see bodies, he sees souls. And premillennials have a really hard time with that part.

One professor at the Dallas Theological Seminary said that this represents an intermediary body. Really? Where do we read in the Bible about an intermediary body? We read about our bodies and our glorified bodies. But an intermediary body. No. What did John see? He saw souls. The premillennial says, well, you can’t see souls, so we can’t take that literally. Oh, so now we’re breaking from our literal translation. See, they have all kinds of problem in consistency. What about this first resurrection? I mean, premillennialism loves this because they have more than one resurrection in their doctrine. So this is the first bodily resurrection. And there’s going to be a later one of the wicked. They love this. Can this be a bodily resurrection? No, it cannot be. Because when it says first, that does imply there will be a second.

And we learn from two passages that there is only one resurrection. And I do want to turn and read them. We will revisit these in a later lesson, but first turn to John chapter 5. Jesus is talking about his authority to execute judgment, to judge the world. And he says in verse 28, do not marvel at this that he is able to judge the world. For an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. One resurrection at one time.

And he says, having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be two resurrections. No, a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. So whatever this first resurrection is here in Revelation 20, it cannot be the bodily resurrection. Because why? We only have one of those. So what is it? These are the martyred souls who came to life in heaven.

And you could argue this is a resurrection of the cause of Christ, which had appeared to suffer defeat at the hands of the dragon of the beast.

Conclusion

Which gave the first century saints hope. Because it told them, You’re going to be just fine too, even if you’re defeated. And those dead loved ones of yours who are Christians, they’re doing just fine. They are reigning with Christ right now. If we die with him, we will reign with him. 2 Timothy 2 and in verse 12. You know what this does? This changes how we view the afterlife. You know, heaven is not sitting on clouds and playing harps. It’s hard to get excited about sitting on clouds and playing harps. And that’s not scriptural. Heaven is reigning with Christ. It is sharing in his rule. That’s powerful. That’s exciting. That’s something we can look forward to. Secondly, it changes how we view the battle that we are currently engaged in.

We’re engaged in a spiritual battle with Satan. A battle that is real, that sometimes we don’t see as we live our Cush American lives. I want to read a quote from J.C. Rile. The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight against spiritual apathy in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a brief round of formal religious services once or twice every week, but of the great spiritual warfare, its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, it’s battles and contests of all things, they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own. As a child, church I grew up going to on the way out and the exit door, it said, you are now entering the battlefield.

And so what do we need to do, brethren? We need to take up the full armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness and the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist. And having done all to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore. Gird yourself with this armor. We have been lulled into a softness. We have been spoiled by our conveniences, and we have forgotten that Satan is trying to destroy our souls. And we’ve got to fight him. We’ve got to fight false doctrine, and we’ve got to fight immorality.

Amen?

And we also need to remember as we view this battle that we are on the winning side. You know, the first century saints needed that reminder. It looks like we’re losing. But the message was, no, you’re winning. And Satan is one day going to be totally destroyed and thrown into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. Third and finally, this changes our view of our suffering. When things are going great, and life is peachy king, then it’s easy to think that God is in control and that Christ is on his right hand. But when things get bad, when things are tough and life is hard, it’s easy to forget that. It’s easy to think that God’s not in control and Christ is not on his right hand.

But that’s not the case. Because we can only see so far. We have to have eyes of faith that see beyond. And we have to realize that there is purpose and that ultimately there is rest and there’s victory. And there is reigning with Christ. That, brethren, is the message of hope. If you come away from this with sensationalism, you’ve come away with the wrong thing, I believe. You need to come away with this, having a sense of hope about your eternal destiny, and about who is really in control, and that is God and his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of Lords, to whom we bow the knee. Would you bow with me as we pray? Our Father, we thank you so much that you have sent your Son, that He might submit all things under His feet, that He might reign over all things, that His name might be greater and higher than any who are named, of those in heaven and on earth and those under the earth.

We praise you, Father, that you have made a plan and that it can be fulfilled only in your Son, that every enemy will be vanquished and defeated, and the last enemy is death. Would you give us, Father, the hope that we will not enter into that second death, but that we will enter into life eternal? It is through your son that we pray. Amen.